In de meest actuele analyse en aanbevelingen voor economisch
herstel in ons land geeft de OECD een reeks behartigenswaardige
gedachten mee voor het kennis- en innovatiebeleid. Zo wordt onder
meer het volgende aanbevolen.
"Based on the recommendations from the top teams, the government
is currently working out detailed policy measures with
implementation starting in the first half of 2012. Top teams can
exploit a broad range of experiences and insights to improve the
formulation of framework policies, particularly within
industries.
Indeed, this represents a possibility for ensuring that sector
regulation is as uniform as possible to promote general framework
conditions. Drawing on the experience with the current top
teams, the government should consider establishing similar teams
for more sectors to provide information and suggestions about how
to make sector regulation more growth friendly."
Taxibranche topsector?
Maar dan zouden EL&I, OCW en de topsectoren zelf wel nog een
heel kritisch moeten kijken naar de nu ingezette opzet en koers. Is
deze wel spits en doelgericht genoeg? Is het niet allemaal nog veel
te vaag? "The definition of the selected sectors may also be too
broad, as not all industries need specific attention to promote
exports and R&D and some would be better served by the
application of general framework conditions (such as competition
policy) to ensure favourable framework conditions."
De Parijse experts komen dan met een nogal vals voorbeeldje.
Wellicht ingegeven door hun ervaringen als Thalys-reizigers of
Schiphol-bezoekers met de Nederlandse taxibranche. "For example,
the selected logistic sector could include industries as different
as international and domestic road haulage and taxis."
Blijft het allemaal zo algemeen, dan zullen de topsectoren niet
bijdragen aan scherp en door feiten onderbouwd beleid, zo
waarschuwt men. "Thus, to secure an efficient use of available
public funds, the scope of the top sectors should become more
clearly defined in terms of only including industries where there
is an objective need for public support. This would also contribute
to enabling the planned move towards evidence based policy
making."
Fiscaal complexer dan zinvol
Het inruilen van innovatie en kennissubsidies door fiscale
premies en instrumenten vindt de OECD interessant, maar men noteert
meteen aanzienlijke gevaren. "An important aspect of the reform of
the innovation framework is to replacing direct subsidies with
broader tax incentives. This is combined with a move towards
evidence based policy by establishing an indicator and monitoring
system to guide innovation policies.
This shift is commendable as it is move away from "picking
winners" to a broader policy framework. However, the planned
doubling in the number of R&D tax credits is likely to make the
framework more complex. Thus, the policy framework could be further
simplified by reducing the number of R&D tax credits. Moreover,
innovation policies have been changed quite frequently."
Wat heeft een universiteit er eigenlijk
aan?
Ook het betrekken van de universiteiten bij de topsectoren
beziet de OECD met een scherp oog. Waarom zou een academicus
eigenlijk meedoen? Wat krijgt zij er de facto voor terug? "The
government is entering an agreement with universities to foster
research being brought to the market. However, university staff
have little economic incentive for these activities as they often
neither enjoy higher salaries nor share patents rights. To enhance
researchers' incentives to market the result of their research,
clear and more generous rules for sharing patents rights should be
established."
Meer in het algemeen waarschuwt de OECD voor een
topsectoren-opzet die vooral de usual suspects een handje helpt in
crisistijden, maar de nieuwe, groei aanjagende innovatoren en
vernieuwende sectoren voor de deur laat staan. "Another issue is
that the new innovation policy will tend to direct resources to
traditional research oriented industries without necessarily
promoting innovation in services, where new approaches to design,
marketing, organisational structures and other intangibles are
becoming increasingly important.
The new policies for the business sector are commendable for
focussing on framework conditions. Whether the policies, however,
will deliver the expected results in the context of globalisation
is unclear. Most export and innovation activities are undertaken by
large firms, while the aggregated contribution of SMEs in these
areas is modest. Thus, policies to address market failures for
smaller firms are unlikely to have much effect on the ability to
benefit from globalisation unless they work in this direction."